Thursday 8 December 2011 12.54 EST
First published on Thursday 8 December 2011 12.54 EST

Britain was the only country to boost funding for research and development (R&D) on "neglected" diseases last year, bucking a downward trend in public funding that threatens the development of a new generation of lifesaving medicines, a survey said on Thursday.

According to a report from Policy Cures, an independent research group, public funding from the world's richest countries for R&D on diseases such as HIV and Aids, tuberculosis and malaria fell by $125m in 2010, a drop of 6%.

Neglected diseases are those perceived to be diseases of the poor, as opposed to more "western" conditions such as heart disease or flu, which attract greater funding. Besides HIV, TB and malaria, other neglected diseases include dengue, diarrhoeal diseases, leprosy, trachoma and rheumatic fever.

HIV, which relies heavily on public funding, was hit particularly hard, with a $70m cut in funding.

"Government and other public funding is evaporating at a time of tremendous opportunity," said Dr Mel Spigelman, president of the TB Alliance. "We're on the brink of delivering potentially revolutionary new treatments for tuberculosis, with similarly great promise in other areas of global health. Now is the time to invest in critical life-saving technologies; the cutbacks described in this report could be disastrous for global health."

The fourth annual G-Finder report from Policy Cures underlines the pressure on funding for neglected diseases. The Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, launched by then UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, a decade ago, last month cancelled its next funding round because of a lack of cash. A year ago, when the fund asked for $20bn, it received just $11.7bn from donors; the money has increased little since. Donor governments, mostly in Europe, have not been forthcoming, with HIV and Aids dropping out of favour after absorbing substantial funds in the past.

The G-Finder report said public funding for neglected diseases R&D fell across the board last year. The US was down $75m, European commission funding fell $26m, and Sweden was down $14m. It was a similar story in the Netherlands (down $11m), Denmark (down $8m), and France (down $7m). Philanthropic funding also fell by a substantial $80m (down 12%) in 2010, mostly due to a $102m decrease in funding from the Gates Foundation, as several foundation-funded products reached maturity.

"In the past, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation provided over 20% of global investment into new neglected disease products, but those days have gone," said report author Dr Mary Moran, director of Policy Cures. "It's time for governments to step up to the plate, otherwise we risk losing a decade of investment that is on the verge of delivering badly needed new medicines and vaccines for the developing world."

The UK was the only government to significantly increase funding for neglected disease R&D (up $21m, 15%), making good on its promise "not to balance the books on the backs of the poor".

The brunt of the funding cuts has fallen on product development partnerships, which account for some of the most advanced products in development. Funding for product development partnerships has been cut by nearly $100m in the past two years as products approach completion.

The impact of the cuts would have been far worse but for a substantial increase in investment from multinational pharmaceutical companies, the survey said. Industry investment in neglected disease R&D increased by $107m (up 28%) in 2010.

"We regret very much the decrease in funding for R&D for neglected diseases in 2010," said Carmen Kommer of the German Foundation for World Population. "More than 35,000 people die from preventable diseases every day in developing countries and it is in developing countries that people often have no access to treatment. It is only when people are healthy that they can overcome poverty."

Krommer welcomed the decision by the German government to increase funding for R&D in the next threee years.

"Fragilities in the global economy, including the risk of spillovers from developed countries, reversals in private capital inflows, exchange rate misalignments, and commodity price volatility, continue to hamper [developing countries'] growth prospects," said Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, president of the UN general assembly, in his remarks to the fifth high-level dialogue on financing for development in New York.

Al-Nasser said it was "critical that developing countries undertake measures to address poverty and expand productive employment opportunities," but that to do this they will require considerable levels of external assistance. The current economic downturn, he added, will adversely affect foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to developing countries as well as private capital investment, with potentially destabilising effects on their economies.